We've heard rumours regarding some turmoil within the Rheinland less-than-legal circles. The things that came to me weren't very precise though, they did seem to concern an organisation known as the LWB. While the Custodi never had any contact with the LWB, our records at Alexandria contain a little bit of information on them. It would of course be best if we had direct news from someone involved in the region though. Brevity is welcome.
I will keep this channel open, as there might be some things we may need to discuss aside from these rumours.
Yours faithfully,
Ίκαρος Αυγουστόπουλος
Icarus Augustopolos
General of the Custodi
To: Icarus. From: Acting-Arbeitsdirektor Solomon Weiss.
I’m Solomon Weiss. In a coupla’ days I’ll be sworn in as the Arbeitsdirektor of the United Unions. Arbeitsdirektor Hansel Garen? Dead. He has been killed, the way these things usually go, this time, by the Coalition. They even confessed to it. We’ve replaced Garen’s coroner with one of our own – the Unions will know Garen to have died of a heart attack, and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Up until Rheinland went to crap I was Solomon Weiss of the Landwirtrechtbewegung’s funding council. Now the LWB, as an independent movement? It’s gone. Our cause remains, our people are fractured. The Union is providing continued support to my slice of the pie in return for bailing the movement out of its succession crises. I am, now, the highest positioned non-Hessian aligned member of the Volksfront – which means the cause falls to me. I am now the biggest, meanest dog, in the Rheinland underworld. Me.
My movement was apolitical. It was torn apart by a war which we had no part in making, but we did little to stop. Our goal was simple and focused; keeping the good earth of Stuttgart in the hands of the farmer. Keeping what was ours. Short, simple, anticorporatist. Synth Foods blew us aside with the weight of the entire Rhineland and Libertarian federal governments. Soldiers needed food. The eighty war and Nomad War debts had to be paid. We were the fall-men. As for the Coalition and the Hessians, they cared more about spreading their influence than helping us out. They’d rather sell us war machines than be there in the eleventh hour. Which is why I’m here instead of languishing on Tangier. I know who fired the first guns. So do most of my people. So does all the LWB’s picket fleet. When the Unioners knew I’d be coming with three cruisers, they practically gave me the keys.
The LWB was hostile to Crete because it won us guns, ships and funding from the Coalition. Now, I’m a practical man who knows more about spuds than choosing a hill to die on – I’ve nothing against the Corsairs, Crete, piracy, whatever. Now we have Pacifica at our back giving us ships for free, you become a market. Stuttgart is the breadbasket of two houses – our homeland can feed every mouth on Crete with room to fill your larders, even after five generations of ecological damage and forced climate change. I want Crete to know that my first act as Arbeitsdirektor won’t be to undo the bridge that Garen built with your people. The Unioners are better armed, better, equipped, than the LWB. With God’s grace, grain smuggled from Stuttgart could feed Crete inside our lifetimes – even my term in office.
There’s an asterisk here. Doesn’t matter what I believe; I haven’t secured my title yet. It matters what the people keeping me alive think. Now I’m the only man standing between the Coalition putting a puppet in the Arbeisdirektorate, and the only men standing between them and me is the LWB I brought with me, and most of them would spit on a ‘Sair before they’d shake his hand, so you’ve gotta’ win them too, understand me?
You want to show them good faith? There’s a cell of my brothers who took the Greifswald, one of our few cruisers, and are assembling a remnant fleet in sector five C of Stuttgart, they’re under the command of the Gaians now. Get them guns and fuel – they’ll take it, even from a Corsair. Do that and we’re gold as fresh corn. If not? Well, nice knowing you - I'll have a shallow grave to dig 'meself.
Transmission Ended
"Though the past is scarred and the future untold"
" Be the boot heavy, the vacuum cold."
"I of the Liga, do not fold" "For suits or saints or beggar's gold. Information-Recruitment-Message Dump-Feedback
It's a shame to hear that the LWB has been torn apart from the inside, especially due to elements along the lines of Coalition and Hessians. Revolutionaries, separatists, communists and children all have something in common, I suppose. And while undoubtedly Dorians played their part[1] in LWB's downfall, I still hope we can mend past wrongs and remain on good relations.
I didn't expect you asking for supplies for Gaian-commanded people, although I suppose our transport fleet could spare a couple of transports to provide you with a share of the small stockpile of looted goods we have on the Fes.
In case we could help you with anything else, do not hesitate to get in touch.
To: Icarus. From: Acting-Arbeitsdirektor Solomon Weiss.
Thank for your people's aid, Custodi.
My people know the part Crete played. I'm a pragmatist; if we play it up, the situation's doomed. If we cater to vengeance then none of us come off the stronger.
I will keep my movement alive, not score points. Right now I have more to gain from turning cheek than making a corpse of myself. One of the common trends for the LWB and the Unioners is a long history of reatively good ease with the LWB. Both the LWB and the Gaians got along due to mutual opposition to the terraformin' of naturally arable worlds, whilst the Unioners got along through the artefact axis. For now, the two LWB secessionist packs are collaborating, despite a couple of longstandin' ideological arguments.
The result of this is that the Gaians could well be filling the LWB's future shoes in Stuttgart, given enough Unioner backing. That gives the Corsair aligned groups dominance in a region that used to be under the Coalition's thumb through the old Hessian-LWB alliance. Just as good, it gives the Unioners presence in the Omegas and a direct link to Hesse and Coalition core territory - that's something Crete can use.
We're gonna' have to be subtle. The Unioners are comin' under threat to the north. A couple of our old allies are beginnin' to flake, thanks to a little lubrication from the Commonwealth of House Liberty. Nothing that impacts your region, but it puts Pacifica under direct threat by crimping the Rheinland-Liberty artefact trade. To counter we'll have to pull every available ship and airwing up to Bering, push hard into Texas, replace defence with offence whilst we have the initiative. That's our primary revenue source imperilled out there.
You're goin' to have to cover the southern flank - at least till the Unions can get their house in order. The situation's delicate. Last thing we need is a Stuttgart security crises.
Transmission Ended
"Though the past is scarred and the future untold"
" Be the boot heavy, the vacuum cold."
"I of the Liga, do not fold" "For suits or saints or beggar's gold. Information-Recruitment-Message Dump-Feedback